Side note: In the end, yesterday's procrastination-worthy task turned out to be more of a benefit than I anticipated. I've seen it happen so many times before. I really need to continue to remind myself that when something seemingly horrible happens, invariably (typically?) something good comes out of it. It's difficult when you're in the moment, but I'm working on it.

OK... cookies!

While the cookies do contain coconut ingredients, they are not meant to don't taste like coconut at all2.
I started toying with this recipe last year. I wanted to see if I could replicate a gluten free (healthier) version of the Pepperidge Farm® Mint Milano® cookies3. Of course, since I was doing the creating, they would also have to be vegan. The first incarnation used gluten free oat flour and melted chocolate chips (contained soy and cane sugar).
They were a success, but I wanted to see how far I could take the recipe. This version goes several steps further by swapping out the oat flour for sorghum, being very allergy-friendly and eliminating all the refined sugar. Because oat flour has a fairly distinctive flavor, dare I say, these are even better4 than version 1.1

They may not be as "pretty" as the inspiration, but that's such a small sacrifice for a delicious cookie that is also vegan and gluten/soy/corn/nut/refined sugar free5.

I wanted to say that everything in these cookies was created in my kitchen, but then I realized I was treading into sticky territory, and that I really just meant that they don't contain pre-made products or packaged chocolate.It was actually easier to make the chocolate myself, as opposed to melting down pre-made chocolate/chocolate chips. This also allowed me to completely avoid refined sugar and cane sugar AND control the amount of sweetener. I used coconut sugar for this batch, but they can also be made completely sugar free by subbing stevia6.

I have big plans for this recipe, so I'm still deciding whether or not to post it7. I will, however, share this tidbit: In order to get a successful texture from the cookie, you absolutely MUST let them cool completely :-)

Create a Fabulous Day!

1. There isn't a drop of coconut anything in this dish! 2. That's gotta count for something, right? 3. A very special someone is quite fond of those things.4. The very picky and brutally critical bff more than happily scarfed them down, and then looked for more.5. Isn't it?? 6. I'm totally into that sort of thing, but it would've gone over like a lead zeppelin (reference intended) with the bff.7. Sorry, y'all.